Turkey says Syria shot down warplane

ANKARA (Reuters) - Syria shot down a Turkish warplane in the eastern Mediterranean on Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office said in a statement.

"As a result of information obtained from the evaluation of our concerned institutions and from within the joint search and rescue operations with Syria, it is understood that our plane was brought down by Syria," Erdogan's office said.

Turkey would decide on its response to the incident once all of the details became clear, it said in the statement, issued after a two-hour meeting between Erdogan, members of his cabinet and the military.

His office also said that search and rescue operations were continuing for the missing pilots.

(Reporting by Jonathon Burch and Mert Ozkan, writing by Ayla Jean Yackley, editing by Diana Abdallah)